Navigation

Vin Diesel to play Groot in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

Story by Jack Foley

product

VIN Diesel is to play Groot in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Hours after the Fast & Furious star posted a photo of himself on Facebook hugging a model of Groot, the character he has long been speculated to be playing, Marvel confirmed that he had been cast in the role.

In what has been one of the worst kept secrets in Hollywood, the confirmation of Diesel’s involvement continued to be dragged out by the studio and even the film’s director, James Gunn, who had shared Diesel’s photo on WhoSay by writing: “Vin Diesel is a super awesome dude. I can’t tell you how much I like this guy.”

When asked on Facebook whether this did constitute confirmation of what role Diesel would be occupying, Gunn replied: “Sorry man, not yet.”

But when pressed further, he added: “I hope so because I’d hate to think I spent all this time recording him for no reason.”

Once Marvel had issued their own confirmation, Gunn even moved to dispel another rumour surrounding Diesel – that he would be playing Thanos, the villain teased in the mid-credits scene in 2012’s Avengers Assemble.

He wrote: “I hope this puts to rest all the silly Thanos-Vin stuff which people just seemed to make up out of nothing”

Guardians of the Galaxy will be released in August 2014 and also stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Benicio del Toro, John C. Reilly and Glenn Close. It’s seen as one of the more risky Marvel ventures given its colourful array of characters and fantastical worlds.